Colonel Pat Lang's Outpost - "A Committee of Correspondence"

11 June 2014

Eric Cantor and the 7th District of Virginia (first published in 2011)

"I published the post below in 2011. It seems to have been prescient. I wrote that the existing 7th District was a bad fit for Cantor. Whoever gerrymandered the district into its present shape missed the fact that all those yeoman type Virginians living along the corridor NW from Ashland to Warrenton to Page County would inevitably start to "smell a rat" in terms of having Cantor as their rep in Washington. All you had to do to learn the truth was to "hang out" in local places like Clark Brothers, "BBQ Country" across the road and all down along the road toward Richmond. Cantor lost because he was perceived to be "not from here."" pl

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"Do people in Eric Cantor's district really want him as their congressman? It seems like a mis-match. Cantor is a very smooth Richmond lawyer type. As the saying goes, "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth." He is always well spoken and elequent, well dressed and is well heeled.

The district is not like that. It stretches from the northern and western exurbs of Richmond far to the northwest through farm country, up through the Piedmont and over the Blue Ridge to include Page County in the Luray arm of the Shenandoah Valley. If I am not mistaken, Clark Brothers is in Cantor's district. The district is 80% white. Incomes are modest. The population is mainly people whose ancestors have lived there for a long time. Typically, they live in small, well kept houses sited for a view of the countryside. The houses average around $130,000 in price. This is the heartland of the country of Jefferson's Virginia yeomen.

How does Eric Cantor fit into this? Is this story altogether about a Richmond machine politician holding office because the voters can't accept the idea of voting for a Democrat? Perhaps it is.

Cantor is now engaged in an attempt to unseat John Boehner from his place as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is doing this by a maximum display of obstructionism in the process of reaching an agreement on revenues and spending. This is an agreement sorely needed to keep the federal government from going 'belly up." Cantor evidently believes that if Boehner and Obama are blocked from reaching an agreement, then the 'tea party" wing of the House Republicans will propel him into the Speaker's chair in 2012.

Is that what the people of the Seventh District want in their representative? We Virginians have a hard earned reputation for moderation, consideration for others and common sense. We do not elect extremists or people like Pat Robertson's candidates to major public office. Is the game that Cantor is playing compatible with that tradition? Is not the greater good the principle that should be followed in this crisis?

I suppose that the game is rigged in the Virginia Republican Party so that Cantor is assured of the nomination for this "Safe Seat."

In my opinion, an independent should seek to be elected to this seat. A well to do conservative farmer or a businessman from one of the towns, someone with solid Virginia credentials, U.VA, Virginia Tech, William and Mary, millitary service in his or her background, someone like that could take the seat.

Comments

Eric Cantor and the 7th District of Virginia (first published in 2011)

"I published the post below in 2011. It seems to have been prescient. I wrote that the existing 7th District was a bad fit for Cantor. Whoever gerrymandered the district into its present shape missed the fact that all those yeoman type Virginians living along the corridor NW from Ashland to Warrenton to Page County would inevitably start to "smell a rat" in terms of having Cantor as their rep in Washington. All you had to do to learn the truth was to "hang out" in local places like Clark Brothers, "BBQ Country" across the road and all down along the road toward Richmond. Cantor lost because he was perceived to be "not from here."" pl

*******************

"Do people in Eric Cantor's district really want him as their congressman? It seems like a mis-match. Cantor is a very smooth Richmond lawyer type. As the saying goes, "butter wouldn't melt in his mouth." He is always well spoken and elequent, well dressed and is well heeled.

The district is not like that. It stretches from the northern and western exurbs of Richmond far to the northwest through farm country, up through the Piedmont and over the Blue Ridge to include Page County in the Luray arm of the Shenandoah Valley. If I am not mistaken, Clark Brothers is in Cantor's district. The district is 80% white. Incomes are modest. The population is mainly people whose ancestors have lived there for a long time. Typically, they live in small, well kept houses sited for a view of the countryside. The houses average around $130,000 in price. This is the heartland of the country of Jefferson's Virginia yeomen.

How does Eric Cantor fit into this? Is this story altogether about a Richmond machine politician holding office because the voters can't accept the idea of voting for a Democrat? Perhaps it is.

Cantor is now engaged in an attempt to unseat John Boehner from his place as Speaker of the House of Representatives. He is doing this by a maximum display of obstructionism in the process of reaching an agreement on revenues and spending. This is an agreement sorely needed to keep the federal government from going 'belly up." Cantor evidently believes that if Boehner and Obama are blocked from reaching an agreement, then the 'tea party" wing of the House Republicans will propel him into the Speaker's chair in 2012.

Is that what the people of the Seventh District want in their representative? We Virginians have a hard earned reputation for moderation, consideration for others and common sense. We do not elect extremists or people like Pat Robertson's candidates to major public office. Is the game that Cantor is playing compatible with that tradition? Is not the greater good the principle that should be followed in this crisis?

I suppose that the game is rigged in the Virginia Republican Party so that Cantor is assured of the nomination for this "Safe Seat."

In my opinion, an independent should seek to be elected to this seat. A well to do conservative farmer or a businessman from one of the towns, someone with solid Virginia credentials, U.VA, Virginia Tech, William and Mary, millitary service in his or her background, someone like that could take the seat.